The Steampunk Faery

Before I got too far into the drawing I thought I would see whether I enjoyed working on all those gears. This is a preliminary sketch for the wings. Kinda fun!

Anyway, here goes! The arch is in, now to figure out the body!

Here she goes. I started with her corset, because I think that it sets the stage for the rest of her costume and because it's the only thing about this piece that I was pretty sure of. LOL!!

This one is definitely going to be a surprise even for me. I'm not in the least bit sure of what she's wearing. So we will find out together.

I got more detail worked in on the corset. And put in some accessories hanging from it. Which was actually a lot of fun to draw.

Then I needed to work on her face some so that I would get to know who she is. (Yep, they get sorta real for me. Artists!! Geez!)

Then I put in the basic structure to the wings.

She's coming along, but she's being a bit difficult. Hmmmm......

Oh!! Yuck, yuck, yuck!! That hat looks awful! Kinda like it's just pasted on there. Ugh!! I have always had trouble drawing hats on heads. But what costume is complete without a hat?? Ugh! Where's that eraser??

Well, the longer I looked at the photo above, I began to realize that the wings were off also. The figure of the woman is turned ever so slightly, but the wings were flat. Soooooo .... Out came that trusty eraser and I put it to work big time. And after several different attempts, this is the final revamp of the wings. The difference in perspective is a bit subtle but I think that it makes a big difference. I also changed them so that the two sides weren't so identical. I think I like that better.

Oh, and that hat is gone!! LOL!!

I had a really good session at the drawing board! Yipee! I think the wings are LOTS better this way. And putting in the attaching belts took them a step farther.

Then I moved to her skirt and did a bunch of work there, putting in several layers. Then decided that the layers needed to be a bit tailored. So I added wide band trim and some buttons. So far I'm happy with how that's coming along.

Then I could NOT resist. I added a "gun" hanging form her corset! It's subtle, not in your face, but it will had an element of interest to the piece.

I put in a necklace, but I'm not sure that I like what it adds. I'll have to let it sit a while and see.

And finally, she has a new hat. This one is better, but ..... Hmm.....

Some subtle changes and additions.

I got rid of the "belts" across that inner skirt. Even though they gave the skirt a more tailored look, I felt that they cut the figure up too much and stopped your eye from traveling freely up and down her body. So I switched to side tabs. ... I think they give the tailored look without cutting up the figure.

I added more "Floof" (technical costumers term) to both sides of the skirt. I think that the addition helps to counter balance the wings.

And finally, what you don't see is the 4 or 5 different version of a hair style that I put in and then took out. I will have to keep trying.

This would be considered a BAD day at the drawing board. Several more hair versions went in and out and I was left with this one. Really???

And at some point during all the erasing of the hair, I must have mucked up the shape of her face! Geez!!

So, being totally disgusted with those attempts, I got out my circle template and started to put in the gears in her wing sections! I thought that maybe I wouldn't be able to mess that up too much!

Well, tomorrow is another day.

Well, I spent some time on her hair and really just calmed it down some. It's still long (which is sort of one of my signatures), but a much more conservative look than the previous one.

Then I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out what the heck I had done to the shape of her face and how to fix it. I think I have it corrected some now. Although it may need a bit more work.

I lightly put in some epaulettes. I think I like them.

And then I got out the circle template and worked on some of the gears in the wings some more.

Getting there, I think.

Gears, gears & gears again!! LOL!!

And some more adjustment to her face.

More Gears .....

And more gears .....

(Sorry it's been a while since my last update. My daughter gifted me with my second grandchild this last week. So things got a little busy. Both Mother and son are doing well and home now. Nana on the other hand is still recovering from the all night baby vigil! :-))

The gears have made for some really slow going, but I think I have them all in now.

I've finally decided that I like the addition of the epaulettes. So I finished putting those in.

I think I need to tweak the "hat" with some feathers and then I believe this will be ready to go to canvas.

Woohooo!! The drawing is finally finished. And I think she's pretty cool, even if I do say so myself!

I finished her off with --

She's now ready to be transferred to canvas!!

Here she is transferred to canvas.

FYI - I do the initial drawing full size. Then I use artist transfer paper, kinda like the old copy paper, and transfer the drawing to the wood panel that way. It makes it a whole lot easier. I can do all the "working out" on the paper and not have to "re-draw" the whole thing on the panel.

FYI - The wood panel is masonite that I have cut at my local hardware store. Then I roll on 3 layers of white gesso, letting each layer dry in between and giving it a light sanding each time. It makes for a great smooth surface with enough tooth to grab the paint.

As always, I start with the background first. I'm thinking that the colors for this one will be mostly in the earth tone range. And as always, we will all have to wait and see how well that works out for me. :-)

Now blocking in some of the larger sections. this way I get a feel for the type of colors I want to use. So far so good, I think! LOL!

OH Dear!! Painting in and around all those gears is going to be particularly time consuming! But I think it's going to be worth the effort.

I chose a bit of a steel color for the edges of the wing sections. And I even managed to get in a bit of shading with the first layer. I wasn't sure of the color at first, but I think it's going to be a nice contrast with the way I want to go with the inner section of the wings. (hopefully)

I put in the first layer of her skin color on her face and upper bodice. Hmmm.... I'm a bit concerned about her face. Not sure why yet. I'll have to see as I go along.

Moving along now! I think I like the color of the gears and their background. The gold color will vary from gear to gear and more detail will be added to them. But this is the first layer of paint so I'm just laying in the color right now.

The fringe on her epaulettes is gold also, so that will compliment the gears.

I tried some almost black color for her hair. Not sure if that's the best choice though, so I'll let that sit for a while.

Put another layer of color on her skin. Hmm... still a bit worried about her face. Hmmm...

Okay!! All of the first layer of paint is in on the gears. I varied the color from gear to gear to give it a bit more interest. And I like the effect so far.

I also put in the color on the thin "feather" pieces. And on the feathers in her hat.

So far so good, I think.

Was able to put in a good day at the easel and got a lot accomplished. I have been a bit worried about color selection ( so what else is new???) So the first thing I did was to change the color in the underskirt and I really liked that change. Then I darkened the color of the edges of the the wing sections. And I liked that too.

With those two color changes I was able to make decisions on some of the other colors. So far so good!

I decided that it was time to work on the background color some. It needed to be a bit more visible. So that's what you see here. It makes a mess of the stuff that's been painted "in front" of it. But those sections would have always needed a second and even third coat of paint anyway.

I also added a little more paint to the trim on her corset, and changed the color on one of her short inner peplums.

Then I worked a bit on her face. Ugh! I'm really afraid that that is gonna need a whole redo. Yikes!!

I now have the background the intensity of color that I want. It really is a bit darker than the original and I think it will help to punch up the wings.

With that done, I then worked on the arch to get the color back into that and to add some depth to it. The color at the top left is a lot lighter than the color on the bottom right. This helps to give the whole piece added dimension.

Then the spires received another coat of color. As did the edges of the wings.

Slow going but moving along.

So for those of you who have watched my Works in Progress before this new update should not come as a shock. Ummm... Color Change!!!

The colors were too dull for me I think. I really, really like this new version of the outer skirt and that wide inner band. It helps to punch the whole piece up. YAY!!

Well, I couldn't stand it any longer. I finally had to do something about her face. The shape of her head has changed, the direction she is looking has changed and the shape of her chin. Now I need to let that dry some before I can go in and work on it some more. But even with this little bit of work on her, I think I like her better.

I did a little work on the skin tones of her cheeks and neck. But I really needed to leave that area alone to completely dry so that it wouldn't end up a muddy mess. SO ... I went back to work on the inner sections of her wings and those pesky gears.

I worked a bit on the left side sections. I darkened the background so that the gears would really pop out, and I think that works really well. It's hard to see here but I worked on adding some detail to the gears too.

Yay!! Some really nice progress! It's amazing what you can get done when you strap yourself to the easel!! Bwahahaha.

Seriously though, I made sure I had no distractions so that I could get some good work done. I think it was successful.

I'm really happy with the over all color of this one. Now to get to work on refining all the details. .. Yikes!

Now to go back and put in the second/third layer of color for everything. Started with the wings.

All the inner gears of the wings are now pretty done. There may be a bit of a tweak left, here and there, but basically the insides are close to done.

Then I started to get the edging worked on. Finding the right color to give it that steel look took a while. But I think I've found it. Now to get it all in.

Got the edges of the wings all in. And if you look closely you can see that they have highlight and shadows that help to give them that sort of 3D look that I'm always chasing. I'm really pleased with how this came out.

Then I added the same color to the trim of her peplums . I think that addition helped to bring the painting more together.

And just for good measure, I added the same color to the ribbons on her hat.

But ... I'm still terrified of working on her face. If I can't get that right, the whole thing is screwed! Yikes!!! I just have to keep telling myself that this is oil paint and I can always scrape it off and start again!

I know it doesn't look like a lot of work was done, but if you look closely at the wings, you'll see that both sides now have that 3-D look. AND the bolts that used to be there are now back and they have the detail to them that makes them look 3-D also.

The leather like strapping that "holds" the wing sections together is starting to re-appear on the left side now.

Still no face though! Yikes!!

Well, I bit the bullet, held my breath and started work on her new face. It will take a few sessions to get it complete. But she's finally on her way.

Another session on her face, neck and bust. And she's a bit more real.

Also did some more work on her hat. Gave it some of its' trim and detail work.

Filled in the trim on one of those underskirts of hers. And added a bit more color to her overskirt.

Little changes, but worth the effort.

Woohoo!! More face! Yay!

Truly scared to death to get this done. That artist insecurity thing. Geez!

Now just to tweak it here and there.

Also finally put color into her gun and binoculars. And then some more color and definition on the details of the dark trimmed underskirt. I think that it now helps to lead you into the painting and straight up to her face.

The skirt also received another coat of paint.

Getting there slowly. I'm hoping to have her done by the end of this week.

Today's effort is a bit more subtle.

• I added more ribbon and feather spears to her hat on the left side.
• I worked on the shadowing & highlights of the long upper feathers.
• I added a bit more hair to either side of her face.
• The center section of her corset now has additional work on the shadows and highlights of the front sections.
• I did that same work to the top of the bustiere.
• And of course just a bit more work to her face.
• The pale yellow section of her sleeves got a bit of attention as did the upper puff.
• Then some work on her finger tips to finish off the day.

Whew!!!!

A little more tweaking on her face and neck. But not much. It does still need work but I'm sort of letting it sit for a little.

I did, however do a lot of the finishing work on her bodice, corset, sleeves and gloves. It makes all of that really pop. and I think the change in color of her belt and arm bands really helped to bring the whole piece together.

Closer and closer!!

Getting some more of the details finalized.

• The keys from the original sketch are now in.
• The binoculars have changed colors.
• The gun is now a bit brighter in color.
• The pocket watch is now actually there as opposed to just being a blob.
• And the chains that hold all those things are now in also.
• The epaulettes are actually starting to appear.
• And I added a bit more shadow to the left side of her yellow underskirt so that the trim on that next level skirt pops more.
• And her mouth and nose were tweaked a bit too.

Sorry, she's so close to being done that I had to put the Copyright Watermark on to protect her. But I don't think that it gets in the way too much.

As you can see, I worked on getting her hair in. Really makes an amazing difference. I also did a bit more work on her nose. Geez! Noses really make me twitch!

I also did a little more work on the fringe of her epaulettes - highlights and shadows.

She's pretty much done now. Just a few last tweaks.

I added the final elements to her hair - a couple of wisps onto her shoulders - a curl at her cheek. They help to soften her face and to make her look more real (for lack of a better term).

A tiny bit more work on her nose. It doesn't take much to get it looking right. And a bit more shadow to her eyes.

I also added some more shadows to her gun, binoculars, keys, watch and finally to the chains for those items.

Once I was happy with all that, then I started to add the outline that finishes each of my most recent pieces. It's a technique that was used by the illustration masters of the early 20th Century. I think that it really helps to make the image jump off the panel. It takes a while to do and can be REALLY tedious. But it's worth it in the end.

Lots more of the lining work is done.

You know there are lots of times I question whether or not the lines make a big enough difference to justify the amount of time they take to add in. But geez, all I have to do is scroll up and down here to see the difference.

Next session should finish this up.

She's finished now and has her own page in the Faery Realm Gallery!